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Beautiful shoes can certainly be considered works of art, and in the case of these Hot Pink beauties created from ordinary push pins, that is exactly the case.

These striking Push Pin Shoes (1981), designed by Laura Escamilla, were part of a Public Art Installation called Obsessorize: Common Objects Uncommon Accessories, a joint venture between Madison Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) and students at the SVA 3D Design department.

These shoes were spotted somewhere along Madison Avenue in the upper 70s. The exhibit was co-sponsored by Marie Claire magazine.

There’s a Buffalo Exchange store on West 26th Street just a few doors down from the yoga studio that I visit most Saturday afternoons. When I’m a bit early for class, I like to pop in and check out the recent acquisitions. This past Saturday, my eyes popped out of my head when I spotted these Hot Pink Patent Leather Spike Heels. Not only are they absolutely gorgeous, and in perfect condition — the soles look like they’ve never even touched the sidewalk — but they are a size 16! Wow! I can’t imagine who would give them up, but I am sure they will make some lucky drag queen very, very happy!

These Hot Pink custom boots, designed to mimic a pair of cat’s paws, were worn by pop star Katy Perry on her 2014 Prismatic Tour. Created by NYC-based design house The Blonds, the boots were part of a Pink Leopard-Print, Stretch Velvet Catsuit (seen below) worn by Perry onstage.

With confident handling of a limited palette, Eva Gonzalez (1849 – 1883) elevates a pair of evening slippers into a mysterious and enigmatic portrait of modernity for The Pink Slippers (1880). A crucial element of a woman’s wardrobe, footwear was often fetishized because shoes and slippers were not meant to be seen, hidden as they war under voluminous dresses. Gonzalez emphasizes the intimate nature of these accessories by isolating them within dramatic play of light and shadow. An ethereal reflection is visible on the polished surface upon which the shoes rest.

Photographed as Part of The Exhibit Women Artists In Paris, on View Through September 3rd, 2018 at The Clark Institute, Located in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

If you’ve ever had to transfer from the 4 and 5 lines at 59th Street / Lexington Ave to the N/R/W or 6 trains on the upper level, then you have passed by the huge mosaic tile Coffee Cup Mural on the mezzanine level, which is part of a larger work called Blooming, by artist Elizabeth Murray.

Murray has also scattered smaller mosaic tile shoes and coffee cups through the stairwells and on the train platform walls.

What we now refer to as the Red Carpet debuted at the 1922 premiere of Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks, the “First King of Hollywood.” Today, the pre-show parade of stars outside the Academy Awards is arguable as important to the fashion industry as the ceremony itself it to film. For the 2002 Oscars, actress Laura Elena Harring (Mulholland Drive) wore a pair of Stuart Weitzman stilettos ornamented with 464 Kwiat diamonds. While the shoes shown here are a 2012 reproduction, the original Million Dollar Sandals inspired the installation of a shoe-level camera on the red carpet, shifting fashion’s gaze decidedly footward. The designer also issued the famous shoes with a more affordable Swarovski crystals option.

Photographed as Part of Walk This Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes, on Exhibit Through October 8th, 2018, at the New York Historical Society, Located at 77th Street and CPW in NYC.

By the end of the 17th Century, high heels were considered women’s shoes. Indeed, so strong was the connection between shoes and gender that a man wearing high heels could be arrested in New York under a law that forbade people from congregating in public while “disguised by unusual or unnatural attire.” First passed in 1845 to suppress masked political protests, this law was later used to justify the arrest of cross-dressing performers and bar patrons. Many similar laws persisted until the late twentieth century, when changing fashions and cultural norms rendered them unenforceable

Kinky Boots Worn By Actor Billy Porter

Today, high-heeled shoes have appeared everywhere, from boardrooms to bedrooms to courtrooms. They have been called many things: Ultra-feminine, aggressive, provocative, misogynistic, glamorous, fetishistic, immobilizing, erotic, empowering, stylish — just about everything but comfortable.

Gregg Barnes designed these patent metallic leather high-heeled platform lace-up boots in 2013 for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, which is based on the true story of a struggling shoe factory that survived by producing high-heeled fetish footwear in men’s sizes.

Photographed as Part of Walk This Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes, on Exhibit Through October 8th, 2018, at the New York Historical Society, Located at 77th Street and CPW in NYC.